Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 82.djvu/123

Rh In going, south by west from the plateau country, one enters a region of warmer climate and more generous rainfall, which, for want of a more distinctive name, I have called the Central Ranges. This is the part of China which was particularly affected by the rock-folding movements of the Jurassic period, and which in a much more recent time has been reelevatedre-elevated [sic] and therefore newly attacked by the streams and other erosive agencies. Broadly regarded, it is a complex of sharp mountain ridges and spurs with narrow intervening valleys. The ridges are not so high, however, but that they are clad with vegetation, and the scenery is therefore not alpine. The surface is nevertheless very rugged and its internal relief averages at least 3,000 feet. The roughest parts of our Carolinas resemble it in a measure. In such a region obviously, there is no room for a dense population. Wherever there is a little widening of the bottom of the valley, there is a farm or occasionally a small village; and even the scattered benches high up the mountain sides are reached by steep trails and diligently cultivated. But even when all of these are combined, the total area of land under settlement is relatively small.

In this region there are no railroads whatever, and although wagon roads could be built in some places, they would be expensive, and the Chinese have not yet attempted to make them. All travel and commerce,